GROWTH AND SOME PROPERTIES OF CR11GE19

Cr11Ge19 belongs to a large family of materials known as the Nowotny c himney-ladder compounds, some of which were recently proposed as advan ced thermoelectric materials, particularly because of their low therma l conductivity related to their relatively complex crystal structure. In order to assess the potential of the compound Cr11Ge19 for thermoel ectric applications, we grew large single crystals of this peritectic compound by a vertical gradient freeze technique and measured the ther moelectric properties of the crystals. Cr11Ge19 forms peritectically a t 1201K and crystals were grown from Ge-rich solutions. The conditions and the results of the crystal growth experiments are presented. The crystals were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, Laue technique, a nd electron probe microanalysis. The results of the thermoelectric pro perty measurements suggest that Cr11Ge19 has a metallic behavior and t herefore presents little interest for thermoelectric applications.